Aspinwall Manufacturing Company - History of the Aspinwall Manufacturing Company<br /><br />Louis Augustus Aspinwall patented his first potato planter in 1862. He founded the Aspinwall Manufacturing Company in 1883 at Three Rivers, Michigan. He moved the business to Jackson in 1981. A later branch and factory was established in Guelph, located in the Old Drill Hall at 72 Farghar/Huskisson St. It was Aspinwall who developed the first automatic potato planter which created a furrow in the field, deposited a single seed potato from a hopper into that furrow then folded the soil back over the planted potato. <br /><br />By 1900, the firm was building potato planters, sprayers, cutters, sorters, weeders and diggers. The company also introduced a two-row potato digger, powered by a gasoline engine in 1919. Aspinwall had the most competitive line of potato machinery anywhere in the world at the time. At the height of the company's popularity Aspinwall proclaimed itself the "world's oldest and longest makers of potato machinery". The company remained in operation until 1921.